People are using mobile – from smartphones to tablets – for just about anything that they can do on desktop these days. That’s internet surfing, email, online shopping, social media engagement, and so on. As such, it has become necessary for any business that wants to make it online – particularly e-commerce sites – to have a mobile friendly website.

This necessity can be met by designing separate sites for desktop and mobile. But what about one site that could efficiently be used on both desktop and mobile? It exists. It’s called responsive design and you can have one with any good quality responsive WordPress theme. In fact, web design and responsive web design are now synonymous in WordPress.

In this article we’ll take a look at the advantages of having a responsive web design, and more specifically, how it could improve user experience, search engine optimization (SEO) and increase conversion rates.

Mobile Is Taking Over

If you’re in a public space, take a look around you and notice that just about everyone is glued to a mobile device. Let’s take a look at some mobile usage statistics from KPCB US and global internet trends 2015 report to get a better understanding of mobile penetration:

Mobile digital media time in the US is now at 51% compared to desktop at 42%.

Americans spend 24% of their time on mobile.

Vertical viewing (mobile) has increased from 5% five years ago to 29% in 2015; while desktop/laptop have remained steady.

Mobile usage is rapidly growing in e-commerce marketplaces.

The data is clear: you’ll miss out if you’re not focused on providing a good mobile experience.

What Is Responsive Design?

Responsive design means that a website automatically adjusts to any device, and all content remains the same across all devices without impacting site performance.

In other words, as a user switches from their desktop to iPhone, Android, Kindle, or any other device, websites automatically adjusts for resolution, image size, and structure. A responsive site robotically responds to the user’s preferences.

Besides the fact that responsive design completely eliminates the need to design different sites for different devices, there are other reasons why it’s important for your business.

Why Is Responsive Design So Important?

There are three main reasons, among many, why responsive design is so important:

Google Prefers Responsive Design

Google, the most popular search engine in the world, values responsive design over all alternatives. And since responsive sites have one URL and HTML across all devices, Google can more easily and efficiently crawl and index a responsive site.

Another reason why Google prefers responsive design is because it tends to provide a better user experience (as discussed above). It can also make link sharing easy and tends to reduce bounce rate – factors that contribute towards SEO.

Improve the User Experience

Users do not want to resize text and images several times over, or scroll in different directions on a screen to read your content. Data backs this up.

According to an Experience Dynamics infographic, 61% of users who don’t immediately find what they’re looking for on a mobile site will quickly move on to another site. Moreover, 52% of users claim that a bad user experience made them less likely to engage with a company. It’s clear that users prize responsive design. Designing a responsive site shows them that you value their time and business.

Increase Conversion Rates

Mobile shopping is on the rise, making it more important for online businesses, particularly e-commerce sites, to develop fully responsive sites. Let’s look at some stats.

81% of shoppers research online before making purchasing decisions, and 63% of them complete purchases related to their mobile research. Furthermore, two thirds of mobile consumers are looking to make a purchase the same day. These stats provide an insight into how impactful a responsive site can be to your conversion rates.

A fully responsive site can keep your users engaged and increase their chances of purchasing. Following proper dos and don’ts while creating a responsive website, can give you valuable insight into how your mobile users are interacting with your site, which offers an invaluable opportunity to optimize and further boost conversion rates.

Conclusion

It’s practically impossible for any online business to succeed without a responsive website, and it’s only going to get harder. The exponentially increasing amount of mobile users demand it, Google recommends it, and it will ultimately affect your bottom line.

Ready to implement responsive design? Here are a few resources to help you get started:

Tom Ewer is a professional blogger, longtime WordPress enthusiast, and the founder of WordCandy.

6 Comments

Ankit kumar/April 11, 2016 at 12:13 am

designing a web experience, you should take the “Mobile First” approach. Follow the advice in UX Design Trends 2015 & 2016:
write down all the content categories, rank them in terms of priority,
then lay them out in the smallest viewport first. Add elements as
necessary when you move to larger viewports (like tablet or desktop).
For example, if you’re using the collaborative design app UXPin, that means creating your first prototype on the 320px breakpoint. http://serverwagon.com/

Hi Tom. I’m fully agree with you at this point. Without responsiveness there is no value of a popular theme or website. So, we should use responsive theme for our site. Otherwise, all works will be in vain.

Hello TOM, First of all thanks for your marvelous posting over here on this website.
I think having a responsive design for our website attract traffic to our website because most of the people who are using internet they are using websites through their mobile phones. So it is very important to have responsive design for a website.also its load time must be as less as possible.

The following excerpts are from a live interview with Davis Bunn.
” Sure, your “positive conversation” may have you gritting
your teeth every once in a while, but at least you’re starting from a more constructive place.

Just about anything smaller compared to 18″x24″ is normally
ineffective, because it gets challenging to read from a moving automobile.